I was delighted to be asked to guest-edit the April 2013 issue of Eye to the Telescope, and given my choice of themes, instantly hit upon Immigrations. I'm an immigrant myself, having moved to the States from Canada with my American husband in 2004. Immigration is much in the news, these days, often, I think, for the purpose of distracting us from our actual problems, and always, it seems, negatively, and yet immigrants provide much needed vitality to the countries that accept them, widening all of our perspectives and often arriving with skills and knowledge we need.

People move around. We flee wars and follow lovers and hope to make our fortunes. We trade and explore and colonize. We miss our old homes, or we don't. We fit in in our new country, or we don't. We raise our children to assimilate, or we don't. We teach our children our traditions, or we don't.

Speculative writing is a natural fit for exploring what it means to acculturate, enculturate, assimilate or otherwise deal with a new place with strange inhabitants. The poems contained within this issue tackle that exploration from many angles, and I hope you'll find them as moving and fun and thoughtful as I have.